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- When are puppies receptive to emotion-induced human chemosignals? The cases of fear and happinessPublication . D'ANIELLO, BIAGIO; Pinelli, Claudia; Scandurra, Anna; Di Lucrezia, Alfredo; Aria, Massimo; Semin, Gün R.We report an observational, double-blind, experimental study that examines the efects of human emotional odors on puppies between 3 and 6 months and adult dogs (one year and upwards). Both groups were exposed to control, human fear, and happiness odors in a between subjects’ design. The duration of all behaviors directed to the apparatus, the door, the owner, a stranger, and stress behaviors was recorded. A discriminant analysis showed that the fear odor activates consistent behavior patterns for both puppies and adult dogs. However, no behavioral diferences between the control and happiness odor conditions were found in the case of puppies. In contrast, adult dogs reveal distinctive patterns for all three odor conditions. We argue that responses to human fear chemosignals systematically infuence the behaviors displayed by puppies and adult dogs, which could be genetically prefgured. In contrast, the efects of happiness odors constitute cues that require learning during early socialization processes, which yield consistent patterns only in adulthood.
- Sex differences in the behavioral responses of dogs exposed to human chemosignals of fear and happinessPublication . D'ANIELLO, BIAGIO; Fierro, Barbara; Scandurra, Anna; Pinelli, Claudia; Aria, Massimo; Semin, Gün R.This research focuses on sex differences in the behavioral patterns of dogs when they are exposed to human chemosignals (sweat) produced in happy and fear contexts. No age, breed or apparatus-directed behavior differences were found. However, when exposed to fear chemosignals, dogs' behavior towards their owners, and their stress signals lasted longer when compared to being exposed to happiness as well as control chemosignals. In the happy odor condition, females, in contrast to males, displayed a significantly higher interest to the stranger compared to their owner. In the fear condition, dogs spent more time with their owner compared to the stranger. Behaviors directed towards the door, indicative of exit interest, had a longer duration in the fear condition than the other two conditions. Female dogs revealed a significantly longer door-directed behavior in the fear condition compared to the control condition. Overall the data shows that the effect of exposure to human emotional chemosignals is not sex dependent for behaviors related to the apparatus, the owner or the stress behaviors; however, in the happiness condition, females showed a stronger tendency to interact with the stranger.
- Puppies in the problem-solving paradigm: quick males and social femalesPublication . Pinelli, Claudia; Scandurra, Anna; Di Lucrezia, Alfredo; Aria, Massimo; Semin, Gün R.; D'ANIELLO, BIAGIOWe report an observational, double-blind study that examined puppies’ behaviors while engaged in solving an experimental food retrieval task (food retrieval task instrument: FRTI). The experimental setting included passive social distractors (i.e., the dog’s owner and a stranger). The focus was on how the social and physical environment shapes puppies’ behaviors according to sex. The dependent variables were the number of tasks solved on an apparatus (Performance Index) and the time required to solve the frst task (Speed). Sex and Stress were set as explanatory factors, and Social Interest, FRTI interactions, other behavior, and age as covariates. The main fndings were that male puppies solved the frst task faster than females. On the other hand, females displayed signifcantly more social interest and did so more rapidly than males. Males showed delayed task resolution. This study demonstrates sex diferences in a problem-solving task in dog puppies for the frst time, thus highlighting that sexually dimorphic behavioral diferences in problem-solving strategies develop early on during ontogenesis.